A New Type of Love
by SHIELDing-things
Summary: Skye understands the principals of love but not how it feels to experience it. As Simmons stays up with her one night after a particularly tough case, Skye gets her first taste of unconditional love. Fluffy one-shot with a lot of skimmons!


**I've been dying to write something skimmons related and finally inspiration struck and I got to work on this. Hope you all like it!**

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Skye learnt from a young age there are all sorts of love. There was the romantic love she saw between the couples that would foster her for short periods of time. There was the sibling between the children of said couples. Then the paternal love of the couples to their children. She never got to feel what any of those loves could feel like but she understood as well as anyone.

No, the only love she thought she would ever feel was the camaraderie type that was shared with foster children that lived at the St. Agnes orphanage. It wasn't ideal but it gave you something to attach to, a partnership with anyone who'd passed through the orphanage. Because if Skye and all the others were teased and known simply as 'the orphans' then she'd take that name and wear it as a badge of honor. That was just her nature.

Skye knew these four loves. She could see them in relationships better than most. The sibling love between Fitz and Simmons was obvious enough for anyone to see. But then there was the love from the two scientists to Ward, like two children looking up to their moody teenage brother. That was sibling love too. The subtle type of paternal love from May and Coulson to all three younger agents only showed occasionally but, after spending several weeks with the team, Skye could see the little hints with ease.

Romantic, sibling, paternal, camaraderie. In Skye's mind, those were the only types of love to exist. It was in the early hours of a Thursday morning when she discovered the fifth kind.

They had finished a mission in Denmark a few hours previous but had only just been allowed out of the debrief, which had been more of a lecture that Skye had tried and failed not to take to heart.

Ward had mumbled they would move morning practice back three hours before stumbling off to his bunk and falling asleep almost as soon as his head hit the pillow. May had found her way to her own bunk a few minutes earlier while Coulson was finishing up some of the paperwork in his office. Fitz had hung back in the lounge with Skye and Simmons for as long as he could before his exhaustion got the better of him and he found his way to his bed.

Skye was silently refusing to go to sleep. She had her laptop placed on her thighs and was forcing her eyes to concentrate on the binary code that was flying over her screen. If she were more familiar with the program that had been used in the previous case she could have had it wrapped within three days instead of eight.

While most people had marked Skye's late-night endeavor as her being stubborn or sulking, Simmons saw that she was beating herself up for the wasted time. So, despite the yawns that swept between the girls, they both stayed awake as the sky outside turned from complete darkness to an inky shade of blue.

When Skye's neck began to ache from the odd angle she had it at she let out a huff, tossed the pillow that lay in between them to one side and turned so she could lean against the woman who smiled slightly. "You could do that in the morning," The biochemist said in a soft voice when she noticed Skye's head dropping slightly.

"I just want to get it finished," She mumbled back while widening her eyes to shake off some of the sleepiness and stretching her fingers. She refocused her vision on the screen but within seconds it began blurring again, the lines of code swirling until they were just rushing green lines.

With a sigh she dropped her head backward onto Jemma's lap, her eyes fluttered shut as sleep washed over her. When she was sure the woman was asleep, Simmons carefully lifted the computer of the other woman's chest, closed it then placed it down on the floor before gently, and rather nervously, brushing a few strands of her hair out of Skye's face.

The air outside was slowly warming up partly from the aircraft speeding south toward hotter climates but also due to the fast approaching sunrise. The dark tones were slowly fading from the sky as it washed out into a light shade of blue with smudges of pink. Golden sunlight was pouring in through the plane windows as Skye curled up on the sofa, her head still lying in Simmons' lap with her hand dangled down to the floor.

The hacker would have slept much longer had it not been for the approaching footsteps that echoed through The Bus and stirred her as she heard someone step into the lounge. "How long has she been asleep?" Ward asked in a low voice. Skye briefly thought about sitting up, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes and beginning training but was far too comfortable to do that just yet so she remained where she was to listen to the rest of the conversation.

"An hour or so," Simmons answered. "She was up most the night trying to understand the binary code we found on Kronin's computer." She added while glancing down at the young woman, the scientist's breath brushing against her cheeks and making it even harder for Skye not to smile.

There were a few moments of silence as both agents watched the thought-to-be-sleeping woman before Ward spoke again. "I'll be down in the cargo bay. Send her down for training when she wakes up." He hung back a few moments before strolling off down the corridor.

Simmons waited for the sound of his footsteps to fade away before she looked back down at Skye. During the conversation a few more strands of hair had fallen into her face which Simmons softly brushed away before running a finger along her cheek down to brush against her jaw line.

After a few more gentle caresses Skye reluctantly fluttered her eyes open, turned slightly so she was lying on her back looking up at Jemma. "How long have I been asleep?" She asked while attempting to rub the sleep from her eyes without smudging her makeup.

"Not long," Simmons answered, her cheeks tinting the lightest shade of pink which she desperately tried to hide. "Ward asked me to tell you he's waiting downstairs for you." She said a little too quickly which made Skye smirk slightly.

She enjoyed the comfort of the other woman's warmth for a few minutes before she stood and stretched. Simmons watched her stroll round the room to get the stiffness out of her legs before the young scientist stood and took a step toward the door. Skye caught her leaving out of the corner of her eyes just in time to gently tug on the tips of her fingers for her to turn round. "Thanks for staying up with me last night," She said in a low voice while stepping forward so there was a little less than an inch between them.

"It's no problem," Simmons tried to play it off casual but the hot blush returned to her cheeks no matter how much she willed it not to. "I'm going to, uh, get some sleep before Fitz wakes up." She added as an excuse, their fingers brushing together one last time before she turned and did the calmest walk she could back to her bunk.

Skye couldn't keep the smile off her lips as she made up her coffee and carried it down to the cargo bay. She'd finally found that missing piece. The fifth kind of love; unconditional. The type that brings people together no matter. Call it God or fate or whatever you want, Skye finally understood it. This type of love could stretch over any boundary presented. It brought people together for a reason. It wasn't always romantic but Skye knew at that moment that they were meant to be something more. Like the end of a cheesy romance movie, she finally understood love instead of the ways it was represented. She understood she couldn't _possibly_ understand it all… And maybe just this once, she was okay with that.


End file.
